American Journal of Applied Sciences 6 (4): 691-695, 2009

ISSN 1546-9239
2009 Science Publications

Synthesis and Characterization of Gold Nanoparticles by Tryptophane

1

Azim Akbarzadeh, 2,3Davood Zare, 1Ali Farhangi, 1Mohammad Reza Mehrabi, 1Dariush Norouzian,
2
Shahram Tangestaninejad, 2Majid Moghadam and 1Nasim Bararpour
1
Department of Pilot Biotechnology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
2
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran
3
Young Researcher Club, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: Problem statement: Preparation and synthesis of gold nanoparticles with small size and
suitable stability is very important and applicable particularly in medicine. In this study, we have
prepared gold nanoparticles by chemical reduction method employing L-Tryptophane as a reducing
agent for ionic gold. Approach: The gold nanoparticles are the most employed amongst the different
metallic nanoparticles in the fields of nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology. Therefore, the employed
method should provide suitable particle size, shape and particle distribution in order to obtain
nanoparticles of high activity and efficiency indicating the importance of the technique. In this study,
HAuCl4 .3H2O, L-Tryptophane and polyethyleneglycol (PEG) were used to produce AuCl4 ions. They
were acted as pre-material, reducing and stabilizing agents respectively. Results: The size, distribution
and formation of gold nanoparticles were confirmed by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)
indicating the diameter of gold nanoparticles at the range of 10-25 nm and UV spectroscopy. The
formed nanoparticles showed the highest absorption at 518 nm. Conclusion: The gold nanoparticles
were stable in PEG1000. Since these nanoparticles have suitable size distribution they can be
considered as a suitable candidate to be employed in nanomedicine and nanobiotechnology.
Key words: Gold nanoparticles, chemical reduction, L-tryptophane, stability
strength of the reductant and action of the stabilizer in
aqueous phase of the system is critical. Different
chemicals have the potentials serve as reducing agent in
the process of nanoparticles production. These reagents
could be either inorganic such as sodium/potassium
borohydrate[16], hydrazine[17] and salts of tartarate[18], or
organic ones like, sodium citrate[19], ascorbic acid[20-21]
and amino acids capable of being oxidized[22-23]. When
the nanoparticles are formed, they need to be stabilized
for further use. Various reagents have been reported to
serve as stabilizing agent. These include the polymers
such as different kind of polyethyleneglycol[24-25],
polyvinyl alcohol[26], polyvinyl pyrilidon[27,28] and the
surfactant viz, sodium dodycel sulfate[29-31], tween 80,
triton[32] and carbohydrates like chitosane[33].
In this study attempts are made to synthesis gold
nanoparticles by chemical reduction technique
employing L-Tryptophane as reducing agent. There are
reports indicating use of this method synthesize
different nanoparticles such as silver, titanium oxide,
iron oxide with
different reducing/stabilizing
agents[34-37].

INTRODUCTION
Metal nanoparticles have been intensively studied
within the past decade. Nanosized materials have been
an important subject in basic and applied sciences; the
unique properties of nanoparticles sparked their
application in a broad ranges of different fields,
including chemistry, physics, biology, materials
science, medicine, catalysis and so on[1-4]. Nanoparticles
can be used as labels for optical biodetection, substrate
for multiplexed aqueous bioassays, probes for cellular
imaging or carriers for therapeutic delivery [5-6]. Metal
nanoparticles are attractive due to their easy synthesis,
modification as well as their size, shape, distribution
which are properties dependent[7-8]. In particular, gold
nanoparticles can be synthesized and stabilized by
peptides, proteins, DNA and chemical/biological
polymers [9-11]. Several classes of synthesis methods
exist thus displaying different characteristics of the
nanoparticles. Basically nanoparticles can be
spectroscopically characterized on the basis of their
sizes and the method can reveal the concentration of the
synthesized nanoparticles too [12-15]. Besides, the

Corresponding Author: Azim Akbarzadeh, Department of Pilot Biotechnology, Pasteur Institute of Iran No. 358,
12 Farvardin Street, Jomhoori Avenue, Tehran, Iran 13169-43551
Tel: +98 21 6646 5406 Fax: +98 21 6646 5132

691

Am. J. Appl. Sci., 6 (4): 691-695, 2009

tryptophane and PEG 1000 as reducing and protecting
agents in the size of 10-25 with one month stability
promising
its
application
in
nanomedicine,
nanobiotechnology and other related fields.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Tetrachloro auric acid trihydrate, L-Tryptophane,
polyethyleneglycol 1000 were obtained from Merck
Company. Deionized water was used through out the
experiments.

DISCUSSION
Synthesis of gold nanoparticles: Solutions of
HAuCl4.3H2O, L-Tryptophane and polyethyleneglycol
1000 at concentration of 2.25 mM and 3.3% were
prepared respectively. Gold nanoparticles were
synthesized by Turkevich method as modified by us. In
brief, 10 mL of HAuCl4.3H2O was heated to its boiling
on a magnetite stirrer, to which, 15 mL of reducing
agent was injected. Heating was continued till the color
of the solution changed from colorless to pink/red.
Three milliliter of 3.3% polyethyleneglycol 1000 at
room temperature was added to the above mentioned
solution.

Gold nanoparticles can be synthesized by chemical

reduction method of Turkevich. But the synthesis of
gold nanoparticles by this method requires the
reduction of AuCl4 ions to gold nanoparticles.
Furthermore, there are many chemical compound and
reagents which can be considered as reducing agents.
Kimling et al.[38] used Turckevich method to synthesis
gold nanoparticles at the range of 9-120 nm in the
presence of sodium citrate and ascorbic acid whereas
Bhargava et al.[23] synthesized the gold nanoparticles in
the range of 5-15 nm employing different amino acids
viz, tyrosine, arginine and mixture of glycine-tyrosine
also Joshi et al.[22] synthesized the gold nanoparticles by
Lysine; Later on May et al.[39] obtained gold
nanoparticles in the rang of 15-25 nm in the presence of
amino-dextran as reducing and protecting agents.
Nevertheless, the synthesis of gold nanoparticles has
been evolutionized since the time of Turckevich
employing aforementioned. While synthesizing gold
nanoparticles, reduction of anions is important and this
is brought about by tryptophane. Tryptophane is an

Identification:

UV-Vis spectroscopy: The formation of gold

nanoparticles was followed by scanning the
solution containing gold nanoparticles at the wave
length ranged from 400-700 nm using Shimadzu
UV-1601 spectrophotometer
Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM): The
analysis of synthesized gold nanoparticles was
carried out on the film coated drop of nanoparticles
employing transmission electron microscopy
JEOL, JEN2010

Uv Spectra of Gold nanoparticles

0.4
0.35

RESULTS
The formation of gold nanoparticles was followed
by measuring the absorption of the solution containing
gold nanoparticles at the wave length ranged from 400700 nm. The maximum absorption was obtained at
wave length 518 nm showing the formation of gold
nanoparticles (Fig. 1) [40-42].
The stability of the product is an important criterion in
synthesizing nanoparticles that needs to be considered.
To stabilize the formed gold nanoparticles, we
employed PEG 1000. Figure 2 and 3 reveal the
importance of the stabilizer in the system. The formed
gold nanoparticles were stable for one month while
those without stabilizer were stable for one week.
Transmission electron microscopy of synthesized gold
nanoparticles shows the diameter of the nanoparticles
ranging from 10-25 nm (Fig. 4). In this way by
employing a simple and one step reaction we could
synthesize gold nanoparticles in the presence of

Absorbance

0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0

350

400

450

500
550
600
Wave length (nm)

650

700

750

Fig. 1: UV-Vis Spectrum of Gold nanoparticles

amino acid that can be oxidized into its Kynurenine
form, thus this amino acid can be used as a reducing
agent while preparing gold nanoparticles. The
692

Am. J. Appl. Sci., 6 (4): 691-695, 2009

mechanism of the reaction is such that the carboxylic
group of tryptophane loses electron to be converted to
carbonyl and AuCl4 gains the electron to be converted
to Au (scheme 1). Nanoparticles are being formed in
various sizes, therefore, their absorption spectra vary
and the obtained peak depends on the size of the
nanoparticles. Wagner et al.[28] Humbert et al.[40] and
Kumar Jena et al.[41] synthesized gold nanoparticles in
the ranges of 5-50, 20 and 605 nm showing maximum
absorption at 527, 525 and 532 nm respectively
revealing that maximum absorption of synthesized gold
nanoparticles varies with sizes of the synthesized
nanoparticles.

AuCl4 + 3e
Au + 4Cl

E o =1.002

U V S pe ctra in one w e e k

0.6

0.5

Absorbance

0.4

0.3

Fig. 4: TEM image of Gold Nanoparticles

0.2

REFERENCE

0.1

1.
0
40 0

45 0

50 0

55 0

60 0
65 0
W ave le n gth ( nm )

70 0

75 0

80 0

85 0

Fig. 2: UV-Vis Spectrum of Gold nanoparticles in one

week
0 .5

2.

U V S p e c tr a i n o n e m o n t h

0 .4 5

3.

0 .4

Absorbance

0 .3 5
0 .3

4.

0 .2 5
T r y p to p h a n e 3 0
T r y p to p h a n e 2 5

0 .2

T r y p to p h a n e 2 0
T r y p to p h a n e 1 5
T r y p to p h a n e 1 0
T r y p to p h a n e 5
T r y p to p h a n e

0 .1 5
0 .1
0 .0 5
0
400

450

500

550
600
650
W a v e l e n g th (n m )

700

750

800

5.

850

Fig. 3: UV-Vis Spectrum of Gold nanoparticles in one

month
Scheme 1- Oxidation mechanism of L-Tryptophane
with HAuCl4 and reduction of AuCl4
O

NH2

NH

OH

7.

OH
H 2O

6.

Oxidation With
O

HAuCl4

2H

2e

NH 2

H2N
O

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